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<title>if you're still breathing (you're the lucky one) by ProbablyRiley</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28085652">if you're still breathing (you're the lucky one)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyRiley/pseuds/ProbablyRiley'>ProbablyRiley</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Three Peas [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Life Is Strange (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, One-shot collection!, Random smut, no set time line</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:22:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,820</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28085652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProbablyRiley/pseuds/ProbablyRiley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow Max, Chloe, and Rachel navigate life, love, and the weird effects time-travel leaves you with.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rachel Amber/Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Three Peas [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057559</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>if you're still breathing (you're the lucky one)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Maxie?” A very groggy voice came from the bed, the brunette stopped in her tracks and looked behind her. Rachel was sitting up, her eyes barely open as she looked questioningly at the younger girl. </p><p> </p><p>“Hey Rach, go back to sleep love,” The blonde looked like she was thinking it over before nodding and laying back down with Chloe. Once Max was sure Rachel had fallen back to sleep she quietly opened the door and snuck out of the room. After splashing her face in the sink she sighed and walked out to the living room where she knew she’d spend the next few hours. </p><p> </p><p>It had been nearly two years since she used her powers and yet her sleep schedule never seemed to sync up perfectly in any time-line anymore. It was nearly three in the morning and Max found herself turning on the tv and opening her laptop. </p><p> </p><p>This was a pretty common routine for her, wake up at strange hours, wash her face, and then get to work. She was a low-level freelance journalist and she was constantly writing and rewriting any articles that she could get her hands on. She constantly cursed herself for being too scared to use her powers. More often than not deadlines snuck up on her quickly and she was well aware of her ability to easily buy herself more time and yet she could never bring herself to turn back the clock. </p><p> </p><p>Her mind drifted, it wasn’t uncommon these days. Max found herself dancing around memories as she procrastinated the blinking cursor in front of her. Her eyes landed on a small polaroid they had framed on the wall of their tiny apartment. It was of the three of them the day Max entered this timeline in her current body. </p><p> </p><p>It was a day Max often found herself going back to all the time, wondering just how lucky she was to be where she was. </p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Please please please tell me this worked,” Max begged quietly as she felt the world around her fade back into place just as a flash went off. Looking up she felt her heart jump to her throat as she saw her mother standing in front of her. She was posing with her dad at the top of the Space Needle, she couldn’t remember why they were there but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the date.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “What worked?” Her dad asked having heard her.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Oh, nothing, sorry I was just...thinking out loud,” She walked over to the window and looked down at the view of Seattle below, and checked her phone. March 23rd, 2013, six months before she arrives in Arcadia Bay. She did it! </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “You alright honey?” Her mom looked concerned and Max just waved her off.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Yeah, I’m okay I promise. Do you guys mind if I call Chloe really quick?” She asked and both her parents looked more confused than before.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Chloe Price? I didn’t realize you two were even talking still? Sure kiddo, I miss her, tell her we said hi,” Venessa furrowed her brows but nodded.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Thanking her parents she searched her phone for the older girl’s contact and dialed the number immediately.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> It didn’t even take two rings for the line to get picked up. “Well, well, well what do I owe the pleasure of hearing from the world’s number one mutineer?”  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Max could have sobbed then and there hearing the snarky voice she had come to love. Sure Chloe was pissed with her, Max knew she would be, but at least she was alive.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p><em> “Chloe I need you to listen to me I don’t have a ton of time,” Max stressed and she could practically hear the punk roll her eyes. “Is Rachel there?” </em> <em> <br/></em> <em> <br/></em> <em> “What?” Chloe asked the shock evident in her voice, “How do you know about Rachel?” </em> <em> <br/></em> <em> <br/></em> <em> “If you get her I’ll explain,” Max said her patience running thin. She heard grumpy mumbling on the line followed by shuffling as the punk switched to speakerphone.  </em></p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Hello?” An unfamiliar voice spoke up? Max felt a strange flutter in her stomach, the new voice was...oddly alluring. Seems like the rumors about Rachel Amber may have some ground to them after all.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Hi, I’m running out of time so I have to be quick. This isn’t going to make any sense to you, I can’t prove it, and after I hang up things will go back to normal so I don’t expect you to believe me,” She started and she heard Chloe scoff over the phone. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Get to the point Maximus,” Chloe snapped and Max fought the urge to roll her eyes.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Okay so…” She told them everything, the time-traveling, Rachel, and Nathan, the darkroom, Jefferson, All of it, she even outed Rachel and Franks relationship in hopes it would clear the air enough to save their friendship. Chloe was pissed and scared and she called Max a liar and a bitch for making this shit up. Rachel on the other hand believed every word she said, and she also cursed her out for spilling about Frank. Luckily she could explain that one.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Whatever Max, I don’t hear from you for five years and you just call to fuck up my life more? Fuck off dude, you’re just starting drama,” Chloe snapped and Max was sure she was about to be hung up on when she heard shuffling on the other end.  </em>
</p><p><em> <br/></em> <em> “Hey, Max? What day did you say you could prove all of this?” Rachel asked calmly.  </em></p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “October 7th, I’ll be in the new timeline in my body on October 7th, 2013. Then I can find you both if this works and prove it...just...stay alive for me okay? And please keep her alive?” She pleaded and Chloe huffed annoyed.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I will okay? Just prove you’re telling the truth okay?” Rachel gave her word and Max promised in return. They hung up and Max was developing the worst migraine she’d ever had as she felt her conscious being pulled back to the present. She felt her heart beating out of her chest as she let go and made her way back to the present, praying she changed something, anything at all.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> She snapped back to her current body, she was standing in the middle of her dorm. It was exactly the same and Max felt her heartbreak at that moment. She had failed...Chloe and Rachel were both dead and she hadn’t fixed anything. She crumpled to the floor her knees giving out on her as she started to cry. There was a knock on her door that she barely heard and she just shook her head defeated.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Not right now!” She snapped but the person on the other side seemed to ignore her as the door was pushed open.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Oh honey, it’s okay, you’re okay,” An oddly familiar voice said wrapping their arms around Max. The room suddenly smelled of vanilla, spice, and weed but Max couldn’t pull herself from the impending panic attack enough to place it.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Super Max you did it, it’s okay. We are safe, you’re safe. We’ve got you,”  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “C-Chloe?!” Max gasped her eyes glued to the floor as her breathing was still ragged and painful. She felt someone grip her chin and tilt her gaze up, kneeling in front of her was none other than Chloe Price, completely alive and well.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I’m here, Rachel is here too, we are all okay,” Max found her line of vision shifting down to the arms that were around her, grounding her back to Earth. She was surprised to find herself leaning into the embrace and when she looked up she came nose to nose with concerned hazel eyes.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Rachel Amber?” Her voice was hoarse but get felt her stomach burst into butterflies at the small smirk that slid across the actress’s lips.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Huh...I’m a stranger all over again. This has potential,” The teasing tone in Rachel’s voice immediately brought a blush to Max’s cheeks, the photographer was grateful for her tears leaving her flushed beforehand.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I don’t like that,” Max muttered making the other two laugh. She gasped suddenly and pushed herself out of Rachel’s arms making the older girl recoil in shock. Max grabbed her camera out of her bag and barked at the other two to gather behind her.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I don’t know why I’m surprised your first thought is a picture,” Chloe huffed annoyed, but Max just waved her off.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Shush, it’s in case I have to go back and fix something in this timeline,” Max explained as she snapped the photo of the three of them.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p><em> “Actually Max, you do have some explaining to do, and we have some catching you up as well,” Rachel commented and Max nodded solemnly. </em> <br/><em> <br/></em>“Can we go to the lighthouse?” Max asked gently and the other two smiled softly at her and nodded. Chloe walked over and opened the door before chivalrously waving her arm. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “After you two,” She smiled and the three made their way out.  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Two years later and Max was sitting in their apartment in California looking at that fateful picture. It would never not take her by surprise how much her life had changed. How well this timeline worked out for her. </p><p> </p><p>“Fuck…” She cursed when she noticed an hour had passed and she hadn’t written a single thing. </p><p> </p><p>“Everything alright Maximus?’ A very raspy voice came from the doorway to the living room. Max looked up to see Chloe looking at her concerned with hooded eyes. </p><p> </p><p>“Yeah baby, I just couldn’t sleep,” Max explained and the punk nodded before walking over and plopping down on the couch next to her. </p><p> </p><p>“Whatcha thinking about?” Chloe inquired as she pulled Max into her side and wrapped her arm around the younger girl’s shoulders.  </p><p> </p><p>“Coming into this timeline, how I managed to find you...both of you,” She explained, and Chloe smiled softly at her before leaning down and kissing Max softly. They stayed close for a minute before they heard the bedroom door open. </p><p> </p><p>Neither could stifle their laughter as the cutest, grumpiest blanket burrito walked into the room glaring at them. Said burrito shuffled over and unraveled herself before tossing the blanket over the three of them and curling into Max’s side pouting. </p><p> </p><p>“Both of you left me to freeze to death in that room!” she cried dramatically and Chloe rolled her eyes. </p><p> </p><p>“Rach, the only fuckin’ reason I woke up was because you had stolen the blanket and wouldn’t give it back!” She defended but Rachel only pouted harder and folded herself closer into Max. </p><p> </p><p>“For my emotional distress, we have to put on Golden Girls...I need Bea Arther,” Rachel declared and Max let a laugh escaped as she reached forward and flicked on the show. The three of them curled up and made the group decision that no one really needed to work tomorrow anyway. </p>
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